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highest individual exposure for specific personnel authorized additional
exposure was 12.4 r.
During the tests, two Japanese International Geophysical Year
ships reported contamination from fallout and sickness among the
ships’ crews while cruising near the Island of Truk. A medical team
dispatched by the Joint Task Force to examine personnel and ships
confirmed earlier reports by Japanese scientists that the maximum
exposure might have been about 100 milliroentgens, and probably was
nearer 20 milliroentgens. The medical team reported no evidence
that any crew member suffered from radiation exposure.
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Counting of the first half of these
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Medical Re-eramination. of the Rongelap People
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. Rongelap ecology studyincludes monitoring of foodstuffs.
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At the latest in a series of medical examinations given the people
of Rongelap Atoll (February-March 1958) during the 4 years after
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samples has been completed. The little radioactivity found can be
accounted for almost entirely by the naturally occurring radioisotope
potassium 40.
Rongelap ecological studies. Thefirst phase of a long-termecological
survey of Rongelap Atoll in the Marshall Islands was carried out
during February and March and again in the July-Decemberperiod.
Initial studies were made of various types of soil and the distribution
of radioactive materials in soils, plants, and ground water. Reconhaissance surveys of Rongelap, Eniaetok, and Kabelle Islands, were
followed by detailed examination of soil profiles, collection of samplesof
soil, fish, corals, rats, birds, plankton, and some invertebrates. The
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Radiobiological surveys of the Pacific. Results of surveys during the
Pacific tests to monitor radioactivity in water and marine organisms
included the following activities and findings:
A post-operation marine radiobiological survey was conducted
before the danger area was disestablished.
A similar marine survey was conducted from Eniwetok Atoll to
Guam and return during September. Sea water and plankton samples
obtained during this survey indicated radioactivity levels of the same
order of magnitude as that during a similar post-test survey in 1956.
By the end of September numerous samples of tuna had been sent
to the Laboratory of Radiation Biology, University of Washington,
for counting and analysis. Catches were made in the Western Pacific
_in an area about equal to the size of the United States surrounding the
Pacific Test Site restricted zone.
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the maximum permissible exposure of 5 r for the operation.
crepegate
JULY-DECEMBER 1958
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